Birmingham, Ala. -- The University of Lynchburg baseball team earned its first win of the 2024 season with a 10-3 victory over Birmingham-Southern on Saturday night.
The first hit of the season for the sixth-ranked Hornets came off the bat of Ryan Long to get the scoring started in the third inning. Long's second career home run tied the game up 1-1 after the 12th-ranked Panthers got to Lynchburg's starter Mick Mattfield in the second. Mattfield missed a majority of the 2023 season with an injury and served up 3 1/3 innings with two strikeouts, two walks, and two earned runs.
Austin Riney pitched in relief for Mattfield and worked 3 2/3 innings of shutout ball to earn his first career win. Riney appeared in three games for the Hornets last season but emerged as the hero for the Hornets in their second game of the season as he shut down the Panthers' potent offense. He only allowed one hit and one walk to the 15 batters he faced. He also hit a batter.
Lynchburg started blowing the game open in the fifth after Brandon Garcia led the inning off with a double. He scored after an error by the Panthers' third baseman, and the Hornets put up a three-spot in the fifth.
Lynchburg tacked on six more runs in the eighth and ninth innings as Colin McGuire worked on the mound for the Hornets in those final two frames. Lynchburg didn't tally an RBI during its four-run eighth, scoring on errors and a tough mix of wild pitches and passed balls from the Panthers. Benton Jones did record two RBI on his single up the middle in the ninth however.
Lynchburg (1-1) takes on Millikin for the finale of the Alabama road trip on Sunday, Feb. 18 at noon (11 a.m. central).
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--LYN--
